Recently, someone asked me why I was so afraid of eating conventional products, that is, non-organic, genetically modified foods filled with additives and microplastics. The question struck me as curious because perhaps that's what it looks like from the outside when someone decides to adopt a healthier lifestyle. It might be thought that it's done out of fear, but I believe nothing could be further from the truth.
To begin with, years ago, there was no distinction between conventional food and organic food; it was simply food, as nature offered it to us. Farmers had ancestral techniques for eliminating insect pests or enriching the soil that gave them magnificent produce. Farms respected the balance in the ecosystem: they grew various types of fruits, vegetables, and grains; there were chickens helping to till the soil and eliminate some insects; cows grazing and enriching the land; the water from wells was clean, rainwater was collected and recycled. There was complete balance, and those foods had the same balance in their nutrients, which reached us in their purest state. So, what happened? Man's ambition to make more and more money arrived.
Under the guise of improving and increasing food production for a constantly growing population, industries like genetically modified organisms (GMOs) emerged, along with countless poison producers whose sole aim was to sell. The incredibly fertile and nutrient-rich fields turned into monoculture fields that degraded the soil to the point of dependency on industrial fertilizers.
Among some childhood stories, my dad would tell me how he had to take a glass bottle to the store when buying olive oil; the storekeeper would simply refill it, and no one thought, "Oh! How much work this is!" The advent of plastic was considered an incredible benefit to humanity: no more taking the glass bottle to the store to be refilled with more oil; you just bought another bottle of oil in a nice plastic container with a colorful label full of marketing messages, used it, and then threw it away.
But today, studies show how microplastics are literally invading us from all fronts. They are in our entire environment: in the air, in the clouds, in the water; they are in our lungs, in breast milk. And of course, the implications this has on our health are enormous. The same goes for cleaning and personal care products; everything has evolved (or rather devolved) to the point where the ingredient lists of everything are simply unpronounceable.
Nowadays, children believe that food comes in bags and boxes bought at the store. No one pays real attention to the importance of real farmers and growers; what we live today is a throwaway culture: I don't like it, I throw it away; it doesn't serve me, I throw it away. And this applies not only to food and products but also to interpersonal relationships.So, when we choose a healthy lifestyle, it's just choosing what was naturally created for us. But today, we see as "normal" something we have distorted from its original form. Returning to the natural, returning to our roots, is regaining control over our health, it is returning to our natural state of balance, and that balance brings us happiness. So, let's start making better decisions, not out of fear that this or that toxin will cause us cancer, but because we deserve to be happy, we deserve to be healthy, we deserve to live as nature had planned for us.
Try an experiment: if you have the chance to visit a local organic farm, go, talk to the farmer, get to know him, and let him tell you how he grows those vegetables. Buy whatever is in season, sometimes you can even harvest it yourself. You'll see that it's not the perfectly colored and shaped vegetable you find in the supermarket; and when you wash it, you'll find dirt and insects. Prepare a meal with that and I assure you it will be the best meal of your life, a feast for your senses.
Don't wait for a health crisis to pay attention to your lifestyle. Improving your diet and choosing healthier products helps you connect with your humanity and the planet. In that connection, you will find complete happiness.
